Titus Kaphar’s artwork can be found across the nation at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Yale University and the Mississippi Museum of Art; his painting Yet Another Fight for Remembrance might be his most recognizable, as it was commissioned by TIME Magazine as a response to the Ferguson unrest following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer. The MacArthur Fellowship recipient continues to examine contemporary Black life in his feature film debut, Exhibiting Forgiveness. Actor André Holland stars as Terrell, an acclaimed painter living with his singer-songwriter wife Aisha (Andra Day) and young son […]
Alfred Hitchcock, the director as well as self-analyzing critical observer, is evoked in the latest documentary from Mark Cousins, titled, appropriately, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. During the pandemic lockdown, Cousins was invited by producer John Archer to make a film about the great director timed to the 100th anniversary of his debut film. Cousins set about watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, reading various critical book as well as works by his daughter and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren, all the while filling up notebooks of thoughts, reflections and details. That research and viewing produced a script, […]
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced today the 20 feature-length and 20 short documentaries shortlisted for the 40th IDA Documentary Awards, to be held December 5, 2024, at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. Dominic Asmall Willsdon, IDA’s Executive Director, said in a press release, “The 40th IDA Documentary Awards continues the tradition of celebrating the best of international nonfiction media of the year. We are grateful to all filmmakers who shared their work for consideration this year, representing a record amount of countries in the award’s history. The impressive shortlist for Best Features and Best Shorts reflects on […]
There’s an honesty to Rap World, the feature debut of co-directors Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar, beyond its vérité stylings. With Scharar playing the director, Ben, Rap World is a mockumentary following three friends—Matt (O’Malley), Casey (Jack Bensinger) and Jason (Eric Rahill)—from Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, as they trudge through one long night in a quixotic attempt to make a rap album. It is January 11th, 2009: a month earlier The Dark Knight was released on home video, in nine days George W. Bush will leave office, the Great Recession looms and America feels like it is on the cusp of some […]
A TikTok trend called “Stick Nation” has become one of my favorites. Folks around the world introduce themselves with a simple “what’s up, Stick Nation?,” then present a stick they’ve found. We’ll usually get to hear where they found said stick and if it’s oak, birch or pine. Over the past few weeks, sticks were my route to escapism until I saw a more meaningful use for them in Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau’s DIRECT ACTION. The movie begins with a desktop screen as we start to jump back and forth between protests from 2016 and 2018 in Notre-Dames-des-Landes. Since […]
Catapult Film Fund, which provides non-fiction filmmakers with early stage funding and mentorship, announced today its 2024 Development Grant recipients. Through its flagship program, the California-based nonprofit will help launch 15 new projects from around the world, including stories from China, India, Iran, Mexico, Russia, and across the United States. As noted in a press release, half of the projects are by film teams of color and more than 80% are directed by women and nonbinary filmmakers. The projects were selected from a competitive pool of 900 applications, a record high for the organization. Each film team will receive a […]
Actor, director, coach, teacher, Maria Dizzia is a perpetual student of the craft of acting, which makes her celebrated and in-demand for all those jobs. The movie My Old Ass and the play Pre-Existing Condition are a couple of her most recent projects. On this incredibly dense and gold-filled episode, she generously gives us a peek into the aspects of the work that she deems important to focus on, worth struggling with, or where she simply finds the most fruit. She talks about the huge importance of those first subconscious “offerings,” how to use the discoveries made when “alive” to […]
Italian playwright Marco Calvani makes his feature film debut as a writer-director with High Tide, a Provincetown-set indie drama that centers on the need for communal tenderness after a heartbreak. Lourenço (Marco Pigossi, now Calvani’s husband) considers P-town a paradise. Having left his native Brazil years ago in order to live life as an out gay man (a fact he still conceals from his mother), the queer enclave provides ample community and connection for the handsome young man. However, recent events have made the locale feel more oppressive than he expected: his long-term boyfriend up and left without warning, visa […]
For her fifth feature, 20-year-old Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay gifts us Carnage for Christmas. A renegade force in the no-budget genre realm, her previous work has explored demonic cults, ancient parasites, vigilante vampires and Stephen King filtered through a uniquely queer lens. Maio Mackay’s latest features a supernatural, bloodlusting Santa Claus that small town residents have adopted as part of their folklore. The return of young adults for the holiday season awakens this mythologized entity, though it seems particularly drawn to Lola (newcomer Jeremy Moineau), a true crime podcast host who hates making the annual trek to her hometown. […]
Earlier this week, Filmmaker launched a new newsletter, Considerations, by Tyler Coates. Following and handicapping the annual film industry awards races, Considerations will feature sharp commentary on the pictures, the players, the money and the spectacle. Subscribe here to receive it for free, and first, every Tuesday. — Editor The best way to begin this newsletter is with an introduction and a list of my bonafides. I was previously the awards editor at The Hollywood Reporter, where I’d been covering the Oscar and Emmy races since 2019. I’ve spent over a decade in the digital media content mines, having also […]